Teeling To Look Outside Of Louth For New €20m Whiskey Warehouse

John Teeling, owner of Cooley Distillery in Co. Louth is looking outside of the county to establish a new €20 million plus Great Northern Distillery, according to the Irish Times.

The proposed complex will feature six warehouses which span over a 45-hectare site. Teeling originally wanted to develop the facility in Kilcurry, a rural part of north Louth, but faced fierce opposition from local residents who raised concerns over potential environmental, traffic and fire risks.

'What's The Point?'

John Teeling told the Irish Times that there was no point in establishing a facility in the area when "someone else will come after us”.

“We were going to spend over €20 million on the complex and we were directed there by Louth County Council, who thought it would be a good place to go to. We paid top dollar for it and we have spent half a million on EIAs [environmental impact studies], bat studies and heritage studies to do it right thing,” said John Teeling, now aged 72.

“We should have had a public meeting the day before we put in the planning application,” he said. “By giving them a chance to see what was there, we gave them a chance to organise and there were 41 observations – of which 37 were all the same. They were entitled to do that, but it got its own momentum. Between ourselves and the council, we made a hames of it,” he added